42
PARTISAN REVIEW
Wasil y Leonti ef, in whi ch he said tha t one way or ano ther, th e futu re
of Europe li es in more statism, more sta te contro\. T h a t the ra ti ona l–
ity of production and of politi cal admini strat ion in Eu rope may well
demand this. I think I will try to extrapola te, Wasil y. Wh at you
are saying is tha t all these parties, incl uding the Right parties , the
Eu ropean Social Democra ts, Communi sts, the ul tra-Left, are to some
extent fi ghting for the control of the future. Or for the di rection of
wha t is inevitabl y going to be a mo re p lann ed, a more centrali zed
economy. And the q uesti on therefore, in thi s stru ggle, is who has no t
onl y tempora ry ideological advantages o r bac kin g from one or the
other superpower bl oc, but who has the ability
to
appeal
La
the
European electora te in terms o f some model of th e future whi ch
promises to combine a continua ti on of a reasonable standa rd of
livin g and some sen se of auto nomy or pa rti cipa ti on , continua ti o n o f
the European democra ti c traditi on .
Now Jane Kramer has ra ised the probl em of votes. Peopl e vo te
for thi s Party. In fact it is true that the Europeans vote for some
party. Mos t of our voting, accord in g to our na ti onal vo ting sta tistics,
is about fifty percent. And it seems to me tha t, spea king from thi s
side of the Atl anti c, laments fo r an absence or a lowering of mora le
in Western Eu rope a re in thi s sense a lilli e bit
dix lasse.
And a lilli e
bit prema ture.
Insofar as the European Communi st pa rti es have been bl ocked
or have been kept out of government, they have not been tho ught
eligible to be in coa liti on s. This bl ocks th ese votes, bl ocks the
political parti cipa ti on of impon ant pan s of the popula ti on , and
contributes in that sense to a kind of stasis in the politi cal process.
It
is not a good idea. Now we began on the q ues ti on and I beller
conclude here, of the future of Eu ro-communi sm.
It
seems to me tha t
the real ques tion was asked the o ther day a t a meeting of the
National Security Council , and there the view was tha t the future o f
Euro- communi sm has to be seen by our government and our
political planners, not alon e in terms of adherence to the Soviet
Union , hypotheti cal scen ari os in whi ch these movements ta ke
power, but in terms of the long-term future o f Eu ropean society. And
that seems to me a more sensibl e way to look a t it.
William Phillips:
Can I ask you one fin a l ques ti on? Walter Laqueur
has admitted to being a pessimist. Do you admit to being an
optimist? Just say yes or no.
N orman Birnbaum:
I refu se.
